18
Cunning

12
Resolve

Threats to Janna with this build

To really be a pain to you and your carry, Tahm has to get three stacks of his passive on you. Janna is one of, if not the, strongest disengage champion in League of Legends. You shouldn't be getting eaten anytime soon. However, he does get pretty tanky later on, can easily save an ally by eating them, and has good mobility with his ult, so always be careful.

2

Taric

Taric's prowess comes from two things: his passive damage, and his power to buff his team with AOE heals, stuns, and invulnerability. The first part is negated pretty easily by your strong peel (like Tahm Kench), while the second requires a bit of thinking. Try and play around his ult, and watch where his linked ally is positioned so you won't get caught out by the stun.

3

Leona

You can destroy her combo with your Q. When you see her Eclipse, get ready to fire your tornado into her dash and you should be fine. She does get very tanky and dangerous with her ult later on, so be careful.

3

Zilean

You can dodge his Q bombs very easily, and your shield should block most of its damage if cast on your ADC. If he uses his slow, disengage to avoid his double-bomb combo. Watch for the hourglasses that pop up when he ults a teammate. Wait until they're gone before killing them, otherwise that enemy will revive with a significant amount of health and will pose a threat to the rest of your team. Not a very hard lane in general, though. Be aware that he will have an experience advantage due to his passive, so play carefully if the other duo has early level power spikes.

4

Alistar

Alistar tends to play more passive these days, which means your lane will be decided by who can outfarm whom and who's the better ADC. If he's playing under turret, be careful, as he's good at securing kills while on the defensive. You *can* interrupt his Headbutt with your Q, but it's not very easy to do. Play out the lane and you shouldn't have too many problems.

4

Bard

Bard can offer his carry sustain with his W, but doing that often will deplete his mana, forcing him to go wander for chimes. Try and punish his ADC as much as possible while they're alone. Watch for Bard's tunnel coming back, and be sure you can dodge his Q (it's a stun if it hits two people).

4

Soraka

Soraka can be difficult to deal with because she offers her carry incredible sustain. However, she does so at the cost of her own health, and the only way for her to heal up without pots is by landing her Q. If you can dodge it enough, she'll be too squishy to fight anymore, and you'll be able to trade. Keep in mind that if you don't try and trade at all, it'll give her ADC a free chance to farm and scale up.

4

Rakan

While not especially hard to lane against, Rakan is incredibly mobile and can be hard to peel off, especially during his ultimate. Watch out for his W, and try to not bunch up too much with your carry. While he's ulting, it's crucial that you try to disable him as much as possible, or at least enough that getting to your ADC is too great a risk for him to run in.

5

Braum

Braum will most likely play very aggressive early game, so be on the lookout. After he lands an ability, his passive starts to proc on his allies' basic attacks, so try and save your disengage until after a stack or two has been applied. His Q is fairly easy to see coming, and you can pretty easily shield your ADC if they're about to be hit by it.

5

Janna

MAY THE BEST JANNA WIN

5

Morgana

In lane, you can beat Morgana if you can just dodge her (ridiculously long) root. Should your ADC get hit, shield them and Q into Morg and her carry. Her Black Shield only protects against magic damage, so your E will still be effective due to its physical damage buff. In team fights (BEFORE she gets Zhonya's), if Morgana ults, quickly ult back to push her out of range so your entire team doesn't get stunned.

6

Blitzcrank

For Blitzcrank to be really effective, he has to land his grab. DO NOT get hit by it. Both you and your ADC are very squishy, and a good Blitz grab can easily result in a kill. Of course, if someone *has* to be grabbed, make sure it's you so you can try and buy time for your carry to dish out a few auto attacks with your E and Q.

6

Thresh

If you or your ADC gets hooked, wait until he re-activates his Q to dash, because that can be interrupted by your Q. If that's not gonna be an option, disable the carry instead. You can also stop a lantern pull this way, though that's not an easy move to pull off. Try not to get hooked, and be ready to disengage for your carry if needed.

7

Sona

Sona's all about harass, and you're a passive (and squishy!) support. You can't really out-trade her because she has a strong poke, a heal, a movement speed buff, and a powerful AOE stun. However, she's pretty squishy herself, so if you can shut her down very early with your ADC by shielding her Q/Power Chord and getting some autos off, you'll be able to play it safe and make it to mid game.

7

Nami

Nami can be really aggressive in lane, dealing a lot of damage as well as healing up at the same time. You won't be able to out-trade her a lot of the time, especially if she's good at landing her bubbles. Try and shield what you can, and make an effort to stop her ADC from getting too much damage off. Ask for ganks! :D

7

Lulu

Lulu is an all-around annoying champ to play against. She has good poke, a slow, and can literally turn you into a cupcake. Try and dodge her Q, and have your ADC poke her when it's down. Play safe! Ask for ganks!

7

Nautilus

If Naut lands a hook on you and your carry, it can mean a whole lot of trouble. Try and interrupt his dash with your Q if you can, but if he still gets in the middle of things, get your carry the hell out of there. Play cautiously, and abuse his melee range by poking when his hook is on cooldown. Don't be afraid to ask for ganks!

8

Karma

Her Q deals a lot of damage, especially when enhanced with Mantra, so try and play passively and let your ADC farm up while shielding them from Karma's damage when you can.

9

Annie

Annie is a high-damage, yet squishy support who can decimate you and your ADC very quickly if you're not careful. Watch her tooltip; her passive procs every four spells, and she'll have a swirling white ring around her when it's up. Be careful when she does have it, and work carefully to poke her down with your ADC when she can't stun you.

9

Zyra

Zyra, like Sona and Karma, has great poking power and good burst, coupled with some nasty CC. You've got the speed needed to avoid some of the damage, but your ADC most likely doesn't. Play passively, shield when you can, and ask for ganks!

10

Brand

Brand can burn both of you down with extremely heavy damage from his passive and his W, not to mention his ult. Shield what you can, and try to dodge his abilities. Ask for help from your jungler!

Why do hurricanes travel so fast? 'Cause if they travelled slowly, we'd have to call them slowicanes! heh.

Actually though, thanks for checking out my Janna guide! She's one of the best supports in the meta right now, able to both set up kills for her team and easily get enemies off of an ally, all while whooshing around the map with style. Plus, she's super fun to play. :D

Janna’s peel is by far the best in the game, allowing you to get an entire team off of an ally with ease. Team fight’s going sour? Monsoon the enemy away and let your team escape to safety. Leona’s about to engage? Stop her Zenith Blade dash and it’s like nothing ever happened.

High Mobility

Since Zephyr gives percentage movement speed, you only get faster and faster as the game progresses, letting you zip around the map with ease. This allows you to quickly reach a teammate in need of help, rotate efficiently to secure objectives, escape to safety in a bad situation, get back to lane faster, or just to dodge skillshots more easily.

Simple Kit

Janna’s kit is pretty simple and easy to learn if you’re new to supporting or new to Janna. She doesn’t have a very high skill floor, so you don’t have to play endless customs with friends just to pick up the basics. Once mastered, though, she is an incredibly strong asset to your team.

Game-Changing Ult

Monsoon is an incredibly powerful ult, allowing for amazing peel, team fight resets, and even strong initiations. You can knock someone back into a turret, cancel a fed Katarina’s Death Lotus, and then heal everyone up at the same time. As you level it up, its heal gets very strong, too, and can save teammates in a clutch moment. Brilliant!

Squishy

Janna’s not a tanky support by nature, like Braum or Nautilus. During late game, you can be killed very easily if you’re not careful and don’t have good positioning. It’s also more risky to tank skillshots and harass from enemies during the laning phase, leaving you vulnerable.

Passive Laner

While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as some ADCs need a passive lane ( Vayne, Kog'Maw), it does mean that you won’t be going for kills all the time, especially earlier on. Jannacan be a great aggressive laner, too, but you need excellent communication and a fairly aggressive, hopefully competent ADC.

Ability Reliant

As a support with a kit centered around disengage, you’re utterly useless if you’re out of mana except as a not-very-long-lasting meat shield. You can’t spam any of your abilities due to their high costs, and you can’t use them at the wrong moment in case you need to peel later if things go wrong.

Game-Changing Ult

What, this is a con? Yes, because as strong of an ult as Monsoon is, game-changing doesn’t mean no-risk. You can completely mess up a team fight with this, sending high-value targets away from your team or even hurtling an Amumu right into the middle of your allies. Make sure it will benefit your team when you ult, and they'll love you for it.

Tailwind gives all allies within range an 8% movement speed buff, but only if they're moving towards Janna. You won't really notice this much during early laning, but it does become prominent in team fights or when peeling for an ally. With good positioning, it can actually save a teammate in certain situations.

tips

Utilize this in your positioning; staying behind your team as a fight ends will help immensely if you're trying to disengage.

Q

Howling Gale

Howling Gale lets you charge a tornado for up to 3 seconds, after which it will fly in the direction cast, knocking up anyone in its path. The longer the charge, the longer the knock-up and the farther the tornado goes. Most of the time, however, you won't be charging it for the full amount, as it can interrupt certain dashes such as Vi's Vault Breaker or Leona's Zenith Blade. A quick double-tap of your Q key will quickly and efficiently stop an enemy in their tracks, allowing an ally to get to safety. It can be used offensively as well, disrupting an entire enemy team or acting as a beautiful proc for Yasuo's Last Breath.

tips

If you need to get away from someone who's chasing you, try casting Howling Galeforward and letting it charge. That way, you'll get a much longer knock-up than if you had instantly cast it.

In lane, try and hold on to Howling Gale until you really need it, as using it for poke alone will be both ineffective and will deplete your mana quite quickly.

W

Zephyr

Zephyr has a passive and an active component. The passive summons a little bird orbiting around your head, giving you a percentage movement speed buff and the ability to move through units. It's what makes Janna so ridiculously fast. You're like an eagle. Sailing through the air. Piloting a blimp.

Zephyr's active hurls the bird at a target, slowing them by a percent and dealing a bit of damage. It's more of a chasing ability than an escaping one, because you lose the passive benefits while Zephyr is on cooldown. It still works very well as a peeling ability, though, giving allies time to escape from whomever you've slowed.

tips

If you're being chased, it's much better to hold on to Zephyr, as the movement boost from its passive will help you get away much better than actually using the ability.

Ideally, you should use Zephyr to catch out an opponent, most likely at the tail end of a teamfight. Its damage most likely won't be enough to make much of an impact during combat, and sacrificing that passive will make positioning a whole lot more difficult.

E

Eye of the Storm

Eye Of The Storm is absolutely paramount in lane. It both shields an ally for a pretty significant amount and grants them AD. At max rank, this is equal to a B. F. Sword. If used correctly, it enables you and your ADC to win most trades, with them both having more health and dealing more damage than the opposing ADC/support. In team fights, Eye Of The Storm should be used on whoever is in danger of dying, or, if no one is, your ADC to maximize their damage output.

Eye Of The Storm is unique in its own right in that it is the only ability that can shield a turret (and buff its damage). If a shielded turret kills or assists in killing an enemy, Janna will get the credit.

If you shield your ADC while their autoattack is in the air, the extra damage will apply to that attack. You can abuse this to optimize damage during trades.

R

Monsoon

Monsoon is Janna's ultimate, and quite possibly the best disengage in the game. It knocks back all enemies near her and then channels for a few seconds, healing anyone standing in its area of effect. Monsoon can be used offensively as well as defensively, making it a very versatile ability. You can save a fleeing ally and heal them at the same time, while you follow up with a Howling Gale and get the hell outta dodge. If you're feeling advantageous, you can Flash right into the middle of the enemy team and then Monsoon them apart. This is a risky move, as you might accidentally send an Amumu or Galio right into the middle of your team. It can also very often result in your death.

Monsoon is your ultimate ability. Upgrading it will not only reduce its cooldown, allowing you to proc it more often, but also increase its healing. Totally worth maxing first, as with (almost) all ults.

Eye Of The Storm is an invaluable asset to your team because it can both boost your defense (with its shield) as well as your offense (with its damage buff). Maxing it second is ideal for increasing these effects, and makes your laning phase much more optimized for trades.

While Zephyr's passive provides a huge boost to your mobility, maxing it before Eye Of The Storm isn't the best idea as a support because while its slow is nice, your shield is much better for protecting and buffing your ADC. Take a point in it at level 3, and max it third.

Howling Gale's knock-up is invaluable for disengaging, so unlock it at level 2, especially against an aggressive bot lane. However, the only thing gained from leveling this up (besides the cooldown) is damage. Since the knock-up remains the same at all levels, max Howling Gale last.

On her own, Vayne is absolutely horrendous early game. As a passive support with very strong disengage, Janna can keep her safe and allow her to farm up to make it past the laning phase. All of Vayne's abilites scale with AD (sans Silver Bolts, which deals true damage), so Eye Of The Storm can serve very well when helping secure kills. Monsoon and Condemn also synergize quite nicely, and can disable a target for around 2 seconds if chained correctly.

Ashe's innate crits and CC, coupled with Janna's own CC and damage boost, make for a fine lane. A fully-charged Ranger's Focus paired with an Eye Of The Storm outputs a ton of damage, and Janna's strong disengage makes up for Ashe's lack of escape. A well-aimed Enchanted Crystal Arrow plus a charged Howling Gale is enough to disable an opponent for quite a while, giving you time to either finish the job or disengage a fight, if needed.

Jhin is a fairly immobile marksman, relying on allied damage and careful timing to get a root from Deadly Flourish. Even your basic attacks will proc this, so make sure you guys have good communication so you can be ready to engage or escape a gank when needed. Eye Of The Storm will also buff his deadly fourth shot from Whisper, adding tons of damage to its already massive hit. Finally, Janna can peel off any attackers during Curtain Call, allowing for safe sniping (buffed by Eye Of The Storm, of course). You can also help keep them under CC so Jhin is able to land those crucial four shots.

Janna does very well with most late-game champions, one of whom is Jinx. Janna's Eye Of The Storm coupled with Switcheroo! and Zap! make for amazing poke in lane, and Janna's peel synergizes very well with Flame Chompers! for nice, clean escapes, as well as keeping a target in range to enable the psycho teenager to unleash tons of damage. In teamfights, Janna can enable the immobile Jinx to get the most out of her AOE rockets, while fending off any would-be divers or assassins.

Kog'Maw, like Vayne or Jinx, is a late-game hypercarry. If he can survive (and do well!) in the laning phase, you're pretty well set up for the rest of the game. However, he's very squishy and has no solid escape abilities, so he needs a lot of protection to kite effectively and accurately use Living Artillery. Keep him safe, and he'll do the rest of the work.

Twitch doesn't offer incredible presence in lane, but you can engage in favorable trades if he can effectively stack Deadly Venom. In teamfights, though, Twitch is an absolute beast, utilizing the bonus attack speed from Ambush and blasting multiple enemies at once with Spray and Pray. This makes him a high-priority target, so keep everyone off him as best you can while still buffing his damage with Eye Of The Storm.

When laning against Tahm Kench as Janna, all you have to do is avoid getting hit by his Tongue Lash, which deals a fair bit of damage and slows for an unpleasant amount. If you can do that, it'll be very hard for him to stack his passive, An Acquired Taste, due to your ability at peeling him off. Do be aware of his ult, Abyssal Voyage. If you aren't paying attention, he can sneak up on you with an ally and make short work of you. However, if he tries to do this in a teamfight, you can actually keep him and his ally separated from his allies with Monsoon and Howling Gale, effectively splitting his team apart.

DIFFICULTY: 2/10

Taric's thing is that he can cast Bastion on an ally, then cast all his abilities from them as well as himself. As long as you can avoid his Dazzle, there's not much Taric can do to engage. If you see Cosmic Radiance channeling during a fight, a well-placed Monsoon will deny his teammates any invulnerability.

DIFFICULTY: 2/10

Leona can be a terrifying lane opponent, with her incredible amount of CC and innate tankiness. However, if you can dodge or interrupt her Zenith Blade dash with Howling Gale, then you can easily turn the fight in your favor. Its cooldown at level one is 13 seconds, so be aware of it as you can trade rather well when the ability isn't up. Be careful after 6, as Solar Flare can disable you well before you get a chance to react.

DIFFICULTY: 3/10

If Zilean lands his double bomb combo on you or your ADC, it can mean a lot of trouble. However, they have a slow enough travel time that you should be able to sidestep them, avoiding the stun. If one does stick to you, though, Eye Of The Storm is enough to cover the damage. Be aware of when he's used Chronoshift on an ally, and try to avoid killing that person until it wears off. If they die, they'll gain a large amount of health back and be able to turn the fight against you.

DIFFICULTY: 3/10

Alistar can be a huge threat if he manages to land Pulverize, normally used with Headbutt. Watch when he's approaching too close for comfort, and try to interrupt the dash with Howling Gale. Never focus him in a teamfight if you can manage, as Unbreakable Will makes him incredibly tanky.

DIFFICULTY: 4/10

Bard's Cosmic Binding only stuns if it hits something else first, so avoid standing directly behind your ADC or a single minion. If you can harass him or his ADC in lane, he can't safely wander for chimes, decreasing his lane presence massively. Eye Of The Storm should be enough to negate his poke from Meeps, which helps enormously in trades. If he ever goes to roam, that's the ideal time to punish his ADC. Remember to keep your wards up so he can't surprise you from a Magical Journey.

DIFFICULTY: 4/10

Rakan is a super mobile support who excels in darting around the field to both save allies with Battle Dance as well as initiate and follow up on fights with Grand Entrance and The Quickness. In lane, though, you don't have to worry about much poke,
as Gleaming Quill doesn't do a ton of damage and is a fairly short skillshot to begin with. However, he's very good at following up on ganks and winning long-term fights due to his passive shield and fast initiation. To avoid this, try not to clump up so Grand Entrance can't disable both of you, and save Monsoon for when he uses The Quickness.

DIFFICULTY: 4/10

Soraka is one of the most annoying matchups, since all your harass can be healed right up. Starcall is her only way to gain back her health, so avoid it as best as you can. She's vulnerable to all-ins, so co-ordiante a gank with your jungler, preferably when her Equinox is down. If you do nothing, you're taking a risk by letting her ADC farm up risk-free, which can be very problematic if they scale well into late game ( Vayne, Twitch, Kog'Maw).

Dark Binding's root duration is very long, so avoid it at all costs. While you can Monsoon her away during Soul Shackles to get your allies to safety, you need to play around Black Shield. It will negate any CC so long as it holds, so avoid blowing your ult when it's up. If absolutely necessary, you can whittle it down a little with Zephyr and Howling Gale, but these won't do enough to break it on their own and it's probably better to save them until the shield wears off.

DIFFICULTY: 5/10

Playing against Blitzcrank as Janna is more forgiving than most other supports as you can disengage from Rocket Grab very easily compared to them. However, it's much better to avoid getting hooked at all. If he misses, abuse its 20 second cooldown by harassing him or his ADC during that time.

DIFFICULTY: 6/10

Similar to Blitzcrank, you should play around the cooldown of Death Sentence, which is 20 seconds at level 1 (17 if he lands one). Unlike Blitzcrank, Thresh can easily harass on his own with Flay's empowered autoattacks, which pose a bigger threat in trades. During all-ins, you should break the walls of The Box if your ADC is trapped inside, and, if you can, stop his leap in the first place with Howling Gale. You can also cancel a lantern dash with Howling Gale or Monsoon, preventing his ally from escaping to safety.

DIFFICULTY: 6/10

Lulu brings a lot to the table in terms of disabling you and your ADC, with a slow from Glitterlance, a polymorph from Whimsy, and a huge knock-up from Wild Growth. Try to avoid Glitterlance in lane, and protect your ADC if she uses Whimsy until the polymorph ends. You can avoid Wild Growth's knock-up by staying back during fights. Be careful of its bonus health, as it may catch you off guard if her target was close to dying.

DIFFICULTY: 7/10

Nami's Ebb and Flow is a powerful tool for trading, letting her damage you and heal herself or her ADC with one ability. Try to stay out of range of her if she uses it to avoid it bouncing back. Aqua Prison is her main CC, with a moderate cooldown which you can abuse if she misses it. Be aware that Tidal Wave will not only cancel Monsoon, but also displace everyone you're trying to heal inside of it, so it's ideal to save it until after Nami blows her ult.

DIFFICULTY: 7/10

Nautilus has tons of CC that he can use to lock you down, so you need to be very careful. You can avoid a major fight if you can dodge Dredge Line, but he still has Depth Charge for a guaranteed knock-up on his target and anyone in its way. Try and stay out of the thick of the fight, and get him off your ADC as quickly as possible.

DIFFICULTY: 7/10

Sona has tons of harass with Hymn of Valor and Power Chord. It can target two people at once, so stay out of its range and shield your ADC. Be aware also of Crescendo, which can easily disable you both as it's a fairly wide skillshot. Hang back in lane, and minimize the amount of poke you take. She's very fragile, so don't be afraid to ask your jungler for a gank.

DIFFICULTY: 7/10

Karma's Mantra + Inner Flame is devastating, easily melting through Eye Of The Storm if you get hit. Its AOE slows, too, which allows her to walk up and use Focused Resolve to CC you even more. It's very important that you dodge Inner Flame as much as possible, as the more she lands it, the more Mantra's cooldown lowers. Inspire makes it very difficult to engage in extended trades after the fact, too. In a teamfight, be aware that her Mantra + Inspire can speed up her whole team, and it's up to you to disengage as best you can.

DIFFICULTY: 8/10

While you can pretty easily shield Disintegrate and Incinerate, you can only do one at a time. Pyromania ensures that Annie can land both on your carry, doing tons of damage in a single combo. Summon: Tibbers is equally devastating, as it has no cast time and leaves you little time to react. You have to be aware of when her stun and ult are up at all times, and position very carefully to avoid getting obliterated.

DIFFICULTY: 9/10

While not as bursty as Annie, Zyra has consistent, potent poke in lane with her plants. She can set up seeds with Rampant Growth and Garden of Thorns, which you technically can walk over to destroy but risk getting caught in her Grasping Roots to do so. Try and auto her plants when they come up, and avoid getting snared at all costs. Stranglethorns is very strong in all-ins, and getting caught in its huge AOE can be a death sentence. It cancels Monsoon, too, or at the very least forces you to cancel it yourself in order to avoid the knock-up.

DIFFICULTY: 9/10

Brand has so many sources of damage, and you're stuck with just one shield. You have to dodge everything that you can, or else you'll be chunked down with your ADC. If they end up with three stacks of Blaze on them, they themselves become a walking bomb that you have to avoid. To make matters worse, Pyroclasm forces you to move away from your ADC, leaving them more vulnerable than ever. You have to play this lane super passively, and try and get out of laning as fast as possible.

When choosing masteries, you want to start with which Keystone you're going to pick, then work your down the tree. For Janna, the choice is clear: Windspeaker's Blessing .

Windspeaker's Blessing is an amazing asset to have,, not only buffing Eye Of The Storm's shield and Monsoon's heal, but also increasing affected allies' armor and MR. This is invaluable for early game trades, letting your ADC survive longer trades while maintaining the AD boost from your shield. In teamfights, Monsoon will now not only allow for a quick reset, but leave your allies fortified with resistances.

CUNNING TREE

Wanderer vs Savagery : Wanderer gives out-of-combat movement speed, allowing you to get back to lane or a teamfight/objective more effectively. Since you're not a jungler and won't be farming creeps, Savagery is quite useless.

Runic Affinity vs Secret Stash vs Assassin : As a utility-based support, you won't be taking jungle buffs at all, outside of the rare blue. You can benefit much more from Secret Stash 's upgraded pots, which grant some mana and last longer, giving you more sustain and helping to win longer trades in lane. Taking Assassin is a terrible idea, as you'll be sticking with your team most of the time and are hardly a champion that likes to 1v1.

Precision vs Intelligence : As a utility support, it's a much better idea to spring for the extra CDR and increased cap rather than some extra magic and armor penetration.

RESOLVE TREE

Recovery vs Unyielding : You'll be doing a lot of short trades in lane, so increased health regen from Recovery will benefit you a lot more than a percentage boost in your resistances (of which you won't have very much).

Explorer vs Tough Skin vs Siegemaster : You won't be as up close and personal with monsters and champions very often, so taking less damage from them is a bit of a moot point. Increased movement speed, however, is a valuable asset you can use to get to where you need to be faster, especially around objectives like Dragon and Baron Nashor. Siegemaster simply doesn't have as much potential as Explorer does, so it's not worth it.

Insight vs Perseverance vs Fearless : Having increased health regen when you're low is nice, but it's far more important as a support to have your summoner spells up as often as possible. Fearless doesn't give a whole lot of resistances to you, especially as you're not building tanky at all, so it's safe to disregard it.

Alternates

Greater Mark of Magic Penetration: These will add a little more damage to your abilities, helping win some trades in lane and giving you a little more presence than you otherwise would have.

Greater Mark of Precision: These combine magic penetration with lethality to add a little damage to both your abilities and your autoattacks. Possibly worth taking for stronger harass from your autos/abilities during lane.

Flash is always a must-take spell. Not only does it allow you to easily escape in a tough spot, but it can allow you to get in a better position to disengage for an ally or even pull off the legendary Windsec ( Monsooning the enemy team apart).

Exhaust solidifies your role as a support. It can disable a high-damage dealer, allowing your allies to escape, or catch up to, that enemy to finish them off. It can very easily decide the outcome of a fight, especially in a 2v2 bot lane all-in. If you feel the need to use it (you see an ulting Vayne about to Tumble in, or a Katarina about to ult when you have Q and R down), don't be afraid! You'll thank yourself if they end up engaging.

Ignite should really only be taken if you plan on playing very aggressively, which isn't normally Janna's playstyle. Still, it deals quite a bit of damage (true damage, so it ignores armor and MR), as well as applies Grevious Wounds, securing a kill very nicely or disabling a healer like Soraka or Swain.

Starting Items

Spellthief's Edge is a starting item which gives a little extra damage to your spells and autos when used on a champion or turret, and grants gold for doing so. When you get 650 gold with it, further procs of this passive will grant a nice burst of movement speed. This is really nice during both teamfights and smaller skirmishes, letting you move around the action more easily. It also works really well with Boots of Mobility, letting you gain some speed in combat that would otherwise be disabled by the boots' passive.

Ancient Coin is a starting item that makes dying minions around you (that you didn't kill yourself) drop alternating gold and mana tokens. Those tokens can be picked up by you moving close enough to them (the distance is based of of your attack range). This can be hard during laning, especially because Janna's attack range isn't really anything to write home about, as well as the fact that the enemy duo can see where the tokens drop and can poke you down as you try to get close enough to pick them up. The quest for the Ancient Coin line grants you an extra skill point. You'll generally complete it around level 8 or 9, meaning that you won't be able to max Eye Of The Storm any earlier than normal, so it's a little underwhelming and generally not worth it compared to the potential utility from the Spellthief's Edge line quest. If you know in advance that your laning phase is going to be really tough ( Caitlyn/ Brand, anyone?), then it can still be acceptable to go this route.

Total Biscuits of Rejuvenation are the upgraded pots you get from the Secret Stash mastery. They give a little mana and regenerate health over time. Besides sustaining yourself in lane, it can be very helpful if you pop one at the beginning of a fight, making you significantly hardier throughout it.

Warding Totem is your initial trinket, and holds up to two Stealth Wards, which last for around a minute and recharge around every three minutes. You can use these early wards to scout for where the enemy jungler started, gain vision of the lane bushes to deny aggressive supports, and prevent ganks.

Early Buys

Sightstone is one of the most important items you can have as a support. It enables you to provide vision for your team, which is invaluable for denying ganks, keeping tabs on the enemy jungler, and securing objectives. It's essential that you rush this.

You should switch your trinket to Sweeping Lens right after purchasing Sightstone, so you can start to actively deny vision from the enemy. This is especially important when coordinating ganks and securing objectives.

Frostfang is the upgrade to Spellthief's Edge, giving increased mana regen, AP, and damage/gold on its passive procs, as well as enabling you to finish the Spellthief's Edge quest.

Nomad's Medallion is the upgrade to Ancient Coin, giving increased HP regen and CDR, as well as enabling you to finish the Ancient Coin quest.

Boots of Mobility go great with your Zephyr passive, enabling you to rotate very quickly and get to where you're going in a jiffy. Keep in mind that you lose a fair amount of their speed while in combat, but this can be offset somewhat if you finish the Spellthief's Edge quest.

Utility

Redemption is an amazing support item, and would probably be worth buying just for its incredible stats. It gives CDR, health, regen, and boosts Eye Of The Storm and Monsoon's strength by 10%. However, its active is pretty great as well. You can create an AOE which, after 2.5 seconds, heals allies for a significant amount and burns enemies for a slight bit of true damage. It really can turn around an entire teamfight, as well as save an otherwise stranded ally. You can also use it while dead, so you can contribute meaningfully even after you go down.

Ardent Censer, besides giving AP, CDR, regen, MS, and boosting Eye Of The Storm and Monsoonagain, makes any heals or shields you give to an ally grant them bonus attack speed and make their basic attacks drain health on-hit. It's great for allies who can really utilize the extra stats, like Master Yi, Vayne, or Twitch. A well-placed Monsoon, Redemption, or Locket of the Iron Solari can apply the buff to your entire team, significantly raising your overall damage in a fight.

Mikael's Crucible is an amazing item if you're against enemies with single-target hard CC (e.g., Twisted Fate, Ashe, Gragas, Elise, etc.). It not only cleanses them, but also grants slow immunity and 40% movement speed if successful, allowing your target to escape quickly and/or reposition. The stats it gives are also great, including CDR, MR, regen, and a boost to Eye Of The Storm and Monsoon's strength.

Oracle Alteration is the upgrade to Sweeping Lens, and allows you to sweep an entire area for wards or even hidden champions. It lasts quite a lot longer than its counterpart, and can let you clear multiple wards on your own.

Defense

Locket of the Iron Solari is a tanky item for a support, but one that comes with a lot of protective potential. It grants formidable decaying shields in an AOE around you, meaning you can block thousands of damage from one use alone. It's great for blocking high-damage burst, like Annie's Summon: Tibbers or Ziggs's Mega Inferno Bomb. Make full use of this active by trying to anticipate when the most devastating abilities will be used, or, in an emergency, to save a teammate from something like Ace in the Hole or Ignite if everything else you have is down. Keep in mind that the shield strength scales with your health, so you won't be getting as much bang for your buck than if you bought something else.

Zeke's Convergence is more of an item for tankier/in-your-face supports, as to proc the damage or the slow you have to be in melee range of your opponents, while Monsoon will literally blow them away. The burn on your ally's autos is pretty easy to proc, but it's generally not a worthwhile purchase (unless you really, really need the extra damage) since you'll be missing out on half the item most of the time.

Frost Queen's Claim is the final upgrade of the Spellthief's Edge line. Its active sends out two spooky ghosts, which scout for enemies and slow them based on how far the ghosts traveled. This is helpful when trying to engage, but can be life-saving when venturing into an unwarded area. However, building it is expensive and you have to sacrifice item slots to both build it and hold the finished item, which can be disadvantageous.

talisman of ascension

Talisman of Ascension is the final upgrade of the Ancient Coin line. Its active gives 40% movement speed to nearby allies, which is amazingly helpful if you're trying to engage, escape, or just rotate to an objective. However, just like Frost Queen's Claim, you have to sacrifice significant gold and an item slot to build it.

Alright, I'll split this section into two main parts - laning and teamfighting.

Laning

The overall goal of laning with Janna is to make sure that your ADC makes it through the early game as safely as possible. You do this by engaging in short trades, stopping enemy advances, and working with your jungler to secure any kills or objectives when the opportunity arises.

Positioning and Trading

A crucial part of laning is how you and your ADC are physically positioned in the lane. If you’re too far apart, you won’t be able to assist each other if something comes up, such as a trading opportunity or worse, an unfriendly engage. If you’re too close together, you can’t exert as much pressure on the enemy duo, meaning they can press their advantage and zone you out.

Here’s a rather obvious example of poor positioning. Vayne, sitting at a little less than half health, is in no place to even try and go for a good trade. However, she is situated uncomfortably close to Jinx and Janna, who are positioned so that each has access to the other, yet also has their own zone of control. Imagine a circle around each of the champions in the shot, one whose diameter stretches to maybe slightly smaller than dragon pit. This is the zone a given champion can exert a reliable influence over, either with autoattacks or abilities. If you apply those to the picture here, you get this:

It might look a little messy, but bear with me here. See how Jinx and Janna are able to exert a force across the entire lane, while Vayne and Lux can control far less? Vayne is far too ahead of Lux; if Janna and Jinx decide to go in on her, there’s not much time for Lux to react before the already-low HP Vayne gets chopped to bits. Note also how Jinx isn't standing behind her minions; Lux could easily land a Light Binding if she were in the right place, saving her ADC and potentially scoring a kill. She isn’t, though, so it’s an easy kill on Vayne.

note

It's important to notice that everyone here is only level 3; no ultimates are available, and stats are still quite low.

Now that positioning's been covered, let's get into trading a little. What makes a good trade? What makes a bad trade? Basically, a good trade is where you deal out more damage than you take. In bot lane, it's preferable that your ADC ends it with a higher amount of health. So if, after a fight, your Caitlyn has a bunch more HP than the enemy Kog'Maw, but you are at a lower health level than their Sona, consider the trade in your favor, as Kog'Maw now has to play a lot more passively to avoid getting killed.

So how do you trade with Janna? On her own, she does very little damage. You will need your ADC to either initiate any fights or be right there to follow up after you. Due to the longish nature of your cooldowns, you are at your strongest in shorter trades rather than extended auto-attacking fights to the death. Ideally, you want to have Eye Of The Storm up when you go in for these. If you don't, let your ADC know.

That's it. You can output a lot of damage, and there's not a lot the enemy can do about it, unless they try to counter-engage with hard CC. In case that happens, let's go over how to disengage from a simple advance during laning.

Timing Eye Of The Storm is key here. You need to maximize both its shield value and the AD if you can. Shielding just before damage hits your ADC is best, so it's not wasted. As for actual disengage, Howling Gale is your best friend. If there's a dash you need to block, then block it. If not, let it charge up as long as you can, and try to hit both the enemy ADC and support. Early on, this can be enough for them to back off. Zephyr can be used as well if you're looking to turn the fight around after the fact.

An important thing to remember is your passive, Tailwind. Its buff to allies is stronger that you might think, so it's often helpful to position just behind your ADC when running away so they can benefit from the extra movement speed.

I'll provide a simple scenario as an example. Say you're in lane with Ashe against Draven and Leona. Leona, being a smart player, knows you two will stay back most of the time instead of pushing ahead due to the high damage output of Draven. She'll wait until one of you is out of position, then pounce. Your main goal is to watch and see if Ashe gets too far forward, while also watching to see if Leona will make a move. If you see her advance, position behind Ashe in preparation for Zenith Blade, and try to intercept it with Howling Gale. If she misses, you can get some free autoattacks on her.

Things to remember:

If you can keep your opponents physically away from you, you'll reduce their damage output by default, so try and stop those gap-closers to prevent a bad situation in the first place.

Remember to utilize Tailwind! Stand behind your carry when running away, and you'll be able to escape most pursuers.

Save Monsoon as a last resort, to be used when everything is on cooldown or when your carry is in severe danger of dying. Make sure you're not accidentally knocking enemies the wrong way (right into your ADC, for example) or blowing anyone out of a teammate's ability ( Crowstorm, Death Lotus, Soul Shackles, etc.).

Aight, last bit of early game strats has to do with ganks and objectives.

Ganks and Objectives

A great thing about Janna is that she has tons of CC and utility to make life easier for her jungler when ganking. All you have to do is basically use your abilities offensively rather than defensively. Shield your jungler or ADC to increase damage output, slow a target with Zephyr, and try to time Howling Gale so it'll intercept their path. Even if you can't get a kill from it, a good gank will put enough pressure on your lane to keep enemies guessing and you feeling safer.

So, when's the ideal time to take the drake? You've gotta co-ordinate with your jungler here, as you can't really solo it with your ADC very early. If your jungler is with you, here's some stuff to look out for if you wanna take on the dragon:

Where's the enemy jungler? Is he dead? If so, take dragon while he's on his timer. If he's far away, like in top lane, you can also rush it before he has time to come down and contest. However, if you can see him nearby, it's safer to wait for a better opportunity, unless he's significantly low on HP.

Where's the enemy bot lane? If they're low, or just recalled, it's an ideal time to drag if you're strong enough.

Where's the enemy mid laner? Can your own mid keep them occupied?

How are the lanes doing? Have you taken any turrets? If so, are minions pushing towards their inner turrets? If they are, it's a perfect time to secure dragon while they are forced to push their lanes back out.

Make sure that if you actually start fighting dragon, you pull it out by dealing some damage and letting it follow you to the edge of its pit. This way, it's both easier to disengage if you get in a fight with the enemy (as you're not literally cornered in a pit) and harder for anyone else to steal from behind the pit.

How about turrets? Turrets are very important objectives, as taking them allows you to put more pressure on the opposite side of the map, letting your team roam around more freely and safely. The one you'll be near, the bot outer turret, is generally the first to fall. If you're doing quite well in lane, you can push your minions to the turret, forcing the enemy duo to farm under tower and allowing you to take shots at it. Spellthief's Edge works on turrets, so you'll get the extra gold and proc its extra damage. Pressure on that turret also opens up a safer dragon, so getting it (and keeping your own tower safe!) is pretty crucial to securing and snowballing an early advantage.

Lastly, there's this thing. Baron Nashor grants one of the most powerful buffs in the entire game. It's extremely good for sieging purposes, giving added benefits to you and minions around you. Take this when the enemy has been aced, or the lanes are so pushed to their base there's no chance of them contesting it. Don't waste the buff, either; push down lanes as much as you can, and even go for an inhibitor or two. Remember, your ultimate goal is to destroy the enemy nexus, and the only way to do that is by taking structures. Baron buff is perfect for this, so make sure to press your advantage!

Last section coming up, I promise.

Teamfights

Incredible disengage from YellOwStaR at 21:05

Teamfights are what make or break games. As Janna, you'll want to position yourself near the back, not tanking damage at the front. In a fight, you should focus on a couple of things, with varying degrees of importance. You can figure out what you need to do by asking yourself some questions:

If there's literally nothing you can do to save them, it's not worth it to blow all your cooldowns on a wasted effort.

If no, keep asking:

How can I maximize the damage output of my teammates?

The most obvious way to do this is to use Eye Of The Storm on your ADC or other DPS ally, which directly boosts their AD. Other ways to do this are still fairly straightforward and double as peel, such as using Mikael's Crucible to remove a stun off of a teammate or a charged Howling Gale to catch out a squishy enemy.

Finally:

Is this fight not in our favor? How can I disengage and give my team some breathing room?

Here's a quick reference guide of sorts (similar to the section above):

Monsoon! Again, try and maximize the knockback distance between you and your enemies when you use it, and channel for as long as you need to. You can also use it just for the heal for a reset or to offset the damage of an ability, like Karthus's Requiem, or even cancel a channeled ability like Katarina's Death Lotus.

Here's a Janna peeling for her Renekton; notice her positioning and ability usage to easily ensure his safety.

Laning wards are super important because they can prevent those crucial early ganks, which keeps the enemy from snowballing and gaining an advantage. You'll start out with Warding Totem, which means there aren't as many places you can afford to put your wards until you get Sightstone. You should put these wards just outside of your lane to gain vision of the river, providing time for you and your lane partner to run to safety if you spot the enemy jungler or another laner. You can also put a ward down in lane, perhaps in the lower bushes to prevent a Rocket Grab, Death Sentence, or Dredge Line. Try to communicate with your ADC when doing this, so you don't leave the river completely dark.

Once you get Sightstone, your options open up a little. You can ward deeper into the river, and even a little into the enemy jungle to keep an eye on their whereabouts. Control Wards also come into play here, and there's a few ways to use those. If you're feeling pretty confident, you can put them right in the river, denying roaming from the enemy mid laner and providing safety for your own mid. For blue side, if your lane keeps getting pushed back to your tower, you can ward the tribush to protect yourself from getting dived. If you're on red side, that would be an aggressive ward, denying enemy vision and leaving them vulnerable.

When you're ahead, you need to press and keep your advantage. Part of that is gaining vision of the enemy team, especially in their own jungle and objectives. Placing wards just outside their base means that when you go to siege, they won't feel safe venturing out at all, trapping your opponents in their own base and allowing you to take their camps or even dragon/baron. On the same note, denying their vision with Control Wards leaves them literally in the dark, cutting off their access to much of the map.

When you're tied, you need to be aware of where the enemy is. Are they at dragon? Baron? About to flank you from the river? Knowledge of everyone's location is key to securing an advantage, and can thwart ambushes and objectives. Again, your enemy is trying to do the exact same thing, so getting rid of their wards with Oracle Alteration and Control Wards is of the utmost importance. Be aware that you don't ward too deep alone, lest you get caught out unnecessarily.

Finally, when you're behind, you'll start needing to ward your jungle in order to stay safe. In this situation, not getting caught out is the most important thing to focus on. Try to lay low and ward as much as you can, communicating with your teammates (some of whom should have a Farsight Alteration) and farming what you can, safely. Use your Oracle Alteration and Control Wards to deny very aggressive wards, especially ones in your base, to prevent backdoors with Teleport and flanks from your own jungle.

THE ORANGE-O-METER

Now, not all blockable dashes are alike. Some are quicker than others, some have notable animations, and some have a recognizable channel time. This means certain dashes will be significantly harder to block than others, and may require ample anticipation to interrupt.

"But how do I know which dashes are more difficult to block than others?"

Have no fear! The Orange-O-Meter is here!

HOW IT WORKS

Easily blocked. Has a slow travel time and recognizable animation, allowing plenty of time to react.

Fairly easily interrupted, with a slow travel time or recognizable animation, but requires better timing in order to successfully block.

A bit harder to block than average, requiring some anticipation of when the dash will occur.

Hard. These dashes have a fast travel time, making anticipation an absolute must. Even if you cast Howling Gale right as the animation starts, there's a chance you'll miss the interruption.

Very hard. You have little or no time to react once the dash animation begins, and must fully anticipate it to have a shot at a block.

For reference, here's the range of Howling Gale. The red line is where it will stop if casted immediately, which will be most of the time when dealing with interrupting dashes. If allowed to charge for three seconds, however, its huge range can often catch an enemy off guard.

LEVEL ONE

While intimidating, Galio's dash has the least subtle cast time animation ever, which is him vaulting backwards before going forwards, which not only gives you more space, but allows you a lot of time to prime Howling Gale.

LEVEL TWO

While the dash itself here isn't hard to block, the thing to worry about with this is that whoever is tagged with Bandage Toss is stunned, meaning the only way to interrupt it is if someone else gets hit. Not the best situation, but hey, at least you have friends.

Not really that hard to interrupt due to its fairly high leap animation and almost always being used with the easily-noticeable Counter Strike, but what you need to be careful of is the stun that comes afterwards, as Jax is pretty mobile and can still stun you even if he was knocked out of Leap Strike.

This is a fairly fast dash, but can be easily blocked with a little anticipation. If you or an ally is marked with Prowl, and she's in an advantageous position, she's likely to leap. Since it's a targeted dash, it's easier to interrupt. If it's not towards a targeted player, Pounce can prove a bit more of a challenge.

It can be a real life-saver if you block this, because after the third leap, Riven can knock up your whole team. Try to time it until she's about to slam the ground on the third cast, so she'll both be unable to knock up anyone as well as be thrown a bit backwards in the process.

Vi's primary dash is quite fast, but has a noticeable channel which slows her down while moving, like Varus's Piercing Arrow. The only hard part with this is timing your Howling Gale with when Vi releases the charge. Even if you're a tad late, though, you'll still knock her out of it.

LEVEL THREE

Lunge is a pretty short dash, so it's not really worth it a lot of the time to try and block, unless you're being chased. Try to predict when she'll use it, then send out the tornado and hope for the best.

This one has a tiny bit longer dash distance than Lunge, but blocking it is generally the same idea. Its initial animation is non-existent, so you'll have to predict which way you think Lucian will go. This is fairly easy when being chased, however.

The initial animation of Slice and Dice is pretty much non-existent, but Renekton will generally use it when he can be sure to hit an enemy champion, making it a little easier to time. If you can block it, he won't be able to dash again.

The interesting thing about Heroic Charge is that Poppy will literally carry her target a short distance after she closes the gap, making it awkward to stop. She's also likely to use it when in close proximity to a wall, so it's rare you'll be able to get in a good position to block this anyway.

This is a fast one. Try to anticipate it before Xin Zhao actually dashes, and line up with him and the targeted ally. If you succeed in interrupting Audacious Charge, keep in mind that whoever he tried to dash to is Challenged, and will have their armor reduced for a few seconds.

LEVEL FIVE

Rengar's primary dash is very difficult to interrupt, not only because it's super fast, but also because it's used when coming out of brush, so most of the time you literally won't be able to see him jumping towards you until it's too late. Remember to keep your wards up, always have a Control Ward or Monsoon on hand if Rengar uses Thrill of the Hunt, and never travel alone.

Thanks so much for reading my Janna guide! I hope you can benefit from this, 'cause that was the whole point of this thing anyway :P. Feel free to vote/leave a comment if I helped you out! (A +Rep would also be greatly appreciated :D)

If you recorded a really good Howling Gale block that I haven't put on here yet, feel free to send it to me! I might even put it in :3

Special thanks to Emikadon for the phenomenal banner and headers!

Oh, and you should check out jhoijhoi's Guide to Making a Guide. I literally learned how to BBcode from it, plus it's got some tips if you've never written anything before. :)

Change Log

]June 27, 2017 -

Updated for 7.13

June 2, 2017 -

Updated for 7.11 - sorry it took me so long :(

I know I need to update the list of dashes and add more gifs, I promise I'll get to that soon™

Removed Morellonomicon; besides being a very, very niche pick, it really turned into something you wouldn't want on Janna (and I kinda regret putting it here in the first place), especially with the changes to Grievous Wounds. Anyway, sorry for any inconvenience/confusion. :3

Updated for Patch 5.17! Slight nerf to Monsoon's AP scaling (from .6 to .5) and minimum range decrease/maximum range increase for Howling Gale. Note that this change does make it a bit harder to block dashes/peel in general on short notice, though it's still very doable. :)